Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1887-08-11

serYalIve class OF our country Inc farmers, |
their wives and daughters, who come more in
contact with the free, pure air OF heaven, con-
stitute the conserving influence which keep US
pure, and preserve tendency TO nobler things.
DR.. Blaisdell was followed by Hon. w.
n. Cowden. of Quaker City, former
Secretary of the National Woolgrowers'
Association, and member of State Board |
of Agriculture. Mr. c. assured his
bearers that he would not speak on his
hobby (the wool tariff,) and proceeded
to make an address of general interest
to the husbandmaD. Rev. J. A. Bower.
pastor of the Rock Hill Presbyterian
church, was next introduced, and kept
the large audience in an uproar of
laughter throughout his address. His
address was as follows:
REMARKS By REV. J. A. BOWERS.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: am not so for
tunate as to have hobby suited to the occa>
sion. If the gentleman who preceded me had
got on to his hobby he would have had soft
thing of it-soft and udrm. His hobby is
Jco0l. Like him, however, ! am called upon
!, short notice to make speech, and confess
to feeling of the difficulty. You all know
that it is q peculisrity of the mind that when>
ever you want to use what you know all at
once that everything you know leaves you,
and there is kind of blank in the mind; at
least, from the announcement just made of
the dinner hour, judge you all know what a
vacuum is. Well, that is the trouble with
my mind, and We are told that mature sbhors
vacuum" and so does an audience.
| There is but 0ne reacOB, however, why i
will not entertain you to-day with the most
] thaatItifpl opd ftu fhntpohto
because can not think of them. | am much
in the condition of the gentleman once called
on to address Mission Sunday School in an
eastern city. He commenced by saying that
he had never been called on to make speech,
aud after considerable hesitation he stumbled
ION the question, "Now, children, what shall
say?" Whereupon little gamin in the back
of the room yelled out: Say amen, and sit
down"
Another difficulty in place like this is the
selection of an appropriate theme. Politics
will not do, for what would please a Demo
crat would MT suit Republican, and what
would please Republican the Democrats
would object to, while neither the one nor
the other view would suit the Prohibitionist
am much like the preacher who had entered
upon new field of work, and deacon felt
called upon to give him little advice
"Neow," said the deacon, "doant you say
anything agin the PresbVterians or CalviDism,
for there are lots of them around here, and
mebbe they would MT like it: nor agin the
Methodists for a good many of them come out
sometimes, and doant preach agin dancin'
for our young folks will dance every time
they get chance; nor dosnt you say nothing
agin drinking for Elder Smith does like to
take little onct in a while" The good
parson was beginning to think that probably
most of his accumulated material was of little
account, and he interrupted the deacon to in
quire "what on earth do you expect me to
preach about?" "Oh," says the deacon,
''give it to the Jews; there is not single Jew
in this neighborhnod.
This is Harvest Home celebration. 1t
implies day of recreation from the tolls of
the farm, and it may be well for US to learn
from the good and the great to form true
estimate of the nobility of the occupation
which lies at the foundation of all business
enterprises, and of all social and civil life
George Washington, the great warrior and
statesman, retired from the presidency Of the
| United States to his farm where he ended his
days in pesce Martin Van Buren, the eighth
president of the UDited States, after life full
of honor, wrote in his last will that he had
more satisfaction in the management of his
farm, when he had retired to it, than at any
other period of his life.
1t is true that life on the farm gives oppor-
tunity for the best development of all our
powers intellectual and spiritual
On the farm you learn freedom and indepen-
dence; not necessarily to be stubborn, but to
be firm in your own opinions of right. Here
you can learn to look at thiHgs as they are,
and draw correct conclusions, and dare to ad-
vocate them. You are not afraid of losing
patronage. You are not dependent on the
whimsical favor of any man who demands
that you shall be tool for his use, as the
condition of his support. No. your brawny
arm is not afraid of struggle with the un-
willing soil for bread.
You have time for cultivation of the mind.
and constantly in the germ and leaf and stalk
and ear there are suggestions of thought for
the true developement of character and life.
can readily see how life on the farm ought
to produce the highest style of manhood and
womanhood. The letter which was read q
little while ago intimates that it we're better
! for the boys and girls to stay on the farm, as
they may not be adapted to city life. Let
me say that true man and noble woman is
not out Of place anywhere; and, as for the
ladies from the farm, need only to remind
you that Mrs. Hayes and Mrs. Garfield accu,
pied the White House with grace and dignity
There was another remark in that letter
sbout educ ltion, which thought was little
presump' uous, especially when there were
several college presidents on the platform at
the time. Let me say on the subject of edu>
cation, that true education is the bringing out
of the powers of the mind, and a college
education has for its purposes, first, the fit
ting of a student to think; and, second, the
ability to express his thoughts. In order to
understand the English language thoroughly
the whole of Webster's unabridged dictionary
ought to become reasonably familiar. If we
have thoughts without vocabulary, we can't
express them and if another use words with
which we are not familiar, it is as if he spake
in an unknown tongue A college education
is the quickest and best method of gaining
the desired end.
But many of the opinions in regard to COL
leges and education are formed from unfair
| judgment of unworthy specimens of whom
no more can be said than that hey haze been
to college. A little story will illustrate what
mean.
There was an honest German butcher who
obtained his cattle at very reasonable figures,
and sold his roasts and steaks at most ex,
cellent price, until, as the years rolled away,
he had amassed considerable amount of this
worlds goods. In addition to bis pelf he had
hopeful son, whose name was Jacob, and
the father desiring to give his son advantages
of which he had been deprived, determined
to send Jacob to college. Accordingly he
went. After the first year had passed away,
and frequent drafts had been made upon the
old gcntleman's bank account, Jacob returned
and brought with him other demands to meet
unsettled bills. The anxious parent now col.
lected them together and then said: sShakob.
mabbe you don't know what it cost for you to
go to colletch?" "Knaw," responded Jacob.
| we'll" said the father II tell Won il cAsts
more as tousand dollar" "Whew! You
don't say SO! and I didn't study much either." {"
Do not draw your conclusions Of college life
and education from the 'Shnkobs."
We have need in our great and free Amer.
ica for all the stalwart thinkers who believe in
the truths and principles, civil and religious,
upon which our civilization is founded. We
are having importations of men and Ideas
which are hostile to every thing that has
made us a great and happy people. They
are organizing and calling themselves knights
l. nf ~